Today Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne has successfully and safely gone to the space (cca 100km altitude) and back, marking the first commercial manned space flight. See the Scaled Composites - Tier One / SpaceShipOne Home Page.
This is important because now it's clear private enterprises can go to space without the help from governments (except for the huge body of experience and some approvals). Basically, space flight has just gotten much cheaper and I have a renewed hope for space vacations or even actual colonies.
Perhaps the new "land of the free" could be established on the Moon, now that the USA seems to have some problems on the freedoms front. Imagine starting a country with no history whatsoever in a place where no native civilization would have to be destroyed in the process. I'd grab the first opportunity.
Posted at 1914 on Mon, Jun 21, 2004 in category Links, Personal | TrackBack